Batumi

“It as
easy as pie,” said a stylishly dressed Istanbul woman stepping
across the customs barrier in Georgia. Just like us, she had arrived
at the Sarp border crossing after a 15-minute journey from Artvin’s
border township of Hopa, and was entering the country following a
scant ten minutes of formalities at passport control and the
purchase of a visa. Those who cross over to Batum from Artvin, the
most remote and surprise-filled corner of the Eastern Black Sea,
first encounter a large square that serves as an open-air airport
terminal. The taxis and share-cabs departing from here make it to
Batum in around half an hour. You can even arrange with the
Turkish-speaking drivers for a comprehensive city tour. What’s more,
you’ll have a free guide all the way. Batum, gateway to the Caucasus
and colored by Ottoman culture for three hundred years, awaits you
with its many surprises.

THE LEGACY OF SOVIET RUSSIA BATUMI

The asphalt road to Batum runs between the splendid contours of the
Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea’s endless blue. It’s a pleasant
journey. Gonio Beach, which stretches for several kilometers
starting from the border crossing, is the Eastern Black Sea’s
longest. An old stone bridge joins the farming villages of
Ahalsopeli and Adlia, perched on the two slopes flanking the Çoruh
River. Adlia is famous for its dog breeding farms. Herds of cows
necessitate a mandatory rest stop along the way. Gonio is a small
coastal town situated at the spot where the Çoruh empties into the
Black Sea. Apsaros Castle on its shore was built in the Roman
period. First under Byzantine and then Arab rule, the castle was
conquered by the Ottomans in 1478. Its interior, which includes the
monumental tomb of Saint Matthew, one of the twelve Apostles, and an
Ottoman bath and graveyard, is also a hiking trail dotted with kiwi,
mandarin orange and palm trees. A sign at the entrance says that a
golden statue of a horse from the Hellenistic period found in the
archaeological excavations here is on display in the Batum Museum.
The road continues past Batum International Airport to the city
center. Batum is a large city, too big to be toured in one day. And
Old Batum, with its century-old two- and three-storey houses left
from the Soviet period, is nostalgically reminiscent of Cuba.
The road, adorned with statues of lions, dragons and surrealistic
mythological creatures, reflects the extraordinary architecture of
the Caucasus. One of the region’s characteristic structures is the
Old Post Office building, built in the early 20th century, which
stands at the intersection of the city’s two main avenues,
Baratashvili and Abashidze. White is the dominant color of the homes
along the coast, which is lined with modern buildings. Batum State
Park, also on the coast, is like an emerald isle smack dab in the
center of a city that resembles a field of buildings.
Adorned with statues of poet Ilia Chavchavadze, the city’s
‘uncrowned king’, and other Georgian writers and statesmen, the park
is a giant tour zone with hiking trails, beaches and waterside
cafes. Batum University at one end of the park is a legacy of
Tsarist Russia.

THE ANTALYA OF THE BLACK SEA

Batum, which sits on a broad and fertile alluvial plain deposited
over the centuries by the Çoruh River, is an old port city. At the
same time, it is the capital of Ajara, one of the three autonomous
regions of Georgia, a cultural mosaic with a population of 4.5
million including Georgians, Armenians, Russians, Azeris, Ajars,
Ossetians, Abhazians and other ethnic groups. Christians and Muslims
live side by side in this city of 150,000.
The history of the city, a Russian resort like Turkey’s Antalya
during the Soviet period, goes back three thousand years. Local
sources claim that tribes migrating from these lands 1.8 million
years ago were the forerunners of the modern Europeans. The Georgian
language meanwhile is one of the oldest in the world with its
200-year-old alphabet. Batum, where the cultures of the Roman,
Byzantine, Arab, Russian, Turkish, Armenian, Azeri and Caucasian
peoples have intermingled over the centuries, produced some
prominent political and literary figures during the Soviet period.
Following a long hiatus, the new-found tranquility of this city at
the boundary of Georgia, which declared its independence from Russia
in 1990, has stimulated a socio-economic revival and the opening up
of the region to tourism. The good relations being developed with
Turkey have also facilitated border crossings. And the development
initiative that took off with the revival of the port trade has
continued with the restoration of buildings left from the Soviet
era.
The highrises in the city center today are generally public
buildings and hotels. The foundation was recently laid too for an
International Airport at Batum, which is expected to serve 565,000
passengers a year. That a Turkish firm has undertaken the
construction is just another sign of the close ties of friendship
between the two countries.

BATUMI TRAVEL COFFEE, MAGNOLIAS AND
ACCORDIONS...

The best way to get to know Batum, which has the natural appeal of
cities situated between the mountains and the sea, is to take long
walks along its wide avenues and boulevards. The Batum Dolphin Show
Center, whose fame spread worldwide in the Soviet period, the
Botanical Park, the Aquarium, the Church of the Virgin Mary and the
Museums of Art and Ethnography are just a few of the places worth
seeing. The magnolia blossoms that turn Batum’s hills, parks and
surrounding countryside into a garden of paradise are the symbol of
the city. Besides its magnolias, which find a variety of uses from
perfumes to medicaments and cleaning agents, Batum is also famous
for its coffee. It’s not difficult to find a cafe, or shop selling
coffee and its accoutrements, on almost every corner. For the people
of Batum prolonged kaffee-klatsches to the soughing of the Black Sea
breeze are part and parcel of life—whether at doorfronts, on the
streets or in the cafes—for three seasons of the year with the
exception of winter. There is a pervasive belief that Batum’s
coffees, from the aromatic ones to ‘hot black’, which are divided
into dozens of varieties depending on flavor, aroma and degree of
strength, impart a magical vitality. As the city’s touristic hub,
Batum Harbor is lively all year round with its coffee drinkers,
street musicians, poets and fishermen. And the strains of an
accordion, which could reach your ears on any street or corner in
the city, will strike you like an old Caucasian tale. And at that
moment you’ll realize that you’ll fallen in love with Batum, just
like us...